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The Hindu Caste System is a social/class structure that has been around and enforced for thousands of years. The system categorizes four main groups beginning with the Brahmins. This category is at the top and contains priests, scholars and philosophers. The Kshatriyas are warriors and rulers. The Vaishyas are traders, merchants and farmers. The last and lowest cast is the Shudras. This caste is reserved for people that are laborers and servants. This category/class is even below the Shudras. They are considered to be outside the caste. They are known as the Untouchables or Dalits. This caste of people are to remain separate from the other castes. This include living in other areas and drinking from separate wells (www.emory.edu). Their occupation is menial and they may perform jobs that are dirty and deal with coming in contact with bodily fluids and feces. Higher caste people believe that if they were to come in contact with these people they would also be contaminated. Hindusim is concerned with cleanliness and hygiene. The untouchables were later named "Harijans" (Children of God) by Mahatma Gandhi (www.emory.edu). .
The Caste System is thought to have originated during the Aryan invasion. The Arayans were a higher class than the native inhabitants. The Caste system is not necessarily a religious system but does belong to Hinduism. The system helps maintain the structure of Hinduism. A persons caste is determined at their birth. If you are born a Brahmin you will most likely remain Brahmin. The only way to change your caste is to die and reincarnate into another caste. Your caste determines what your occupation will be and who you will choose for a spouse. It also determines the punishments that one will receive for crimes or misdeeds that are committed. A Brahmin will not be treated the same as any other caste. It is a punishable offense to marry or have a relationship outside your caste (The Humanist, Nov-Dec 2001).

Essays Related to Caste System

Significance of the Hindu Caste Systems In India as well as America there are different classes in society. ... The origin of the caste system began in between 1500BCE and 600BCE with the writings of the four Vedas or "knowledge." ... The Laws of Manu and Bhagavad-Gita emphasized the importance of each caste systems roles and duties. ... The Brahmins were the only caste system able to learn and teach the Vedas. ... This complex system of castes and sub-castes draw a fine line between the social classes. ...

Caste systems were and are a major basis of unity, strife, stratification, politics, and social dominance. ... Within the caste system are layers, or groups of people, that each have their own rules and regulations they must abide by. ... While the caste system is still prominent in India, some alterations have been made to the long-term norms and traditions. ... As time progresses, so is India's traditional caste system. ... Changes such as the lower castes being able to have more privileges that the upper castes have, is a vast step in the caste system, as it has not been changed as muc...

The Caste System The caste system of social segregation cannot be corrected by merely climbing the social ladder. In a caste system, one is born into a particular caste. ... Thus the caste system is accepted and perpetuated. ... To imply that one person in such a system could change and overcome caste classification by social climbing is absurd. It would take a radical systematic change to begin to make changes in such a closed system. ...

The Caste System The caste system of social segregation cannot be corrected by merely climbing the social ladder. In a caste system, one is born into a particular caste. ... Thus the caste system is accepted and perpetuated. ... To imply that one person in such a system could change and overcome caste classification by social climbing is absurd. It would take a radical systematic change to begin to make changes in such a closed system. ...

A caste system is a division of society based on differences of wealth, inherited rank, or occupation. ... Currently, complex castes systems exist especially in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Sri Lanka. When Aldous Huxley wrote Brave New World, he must have been very interested in caste systems. There are many similarities between the system of Brave New World, and current world caste systems. ... Traditional Scholarship has described this more than 2,000 year old system of India to have five separate castes as well. ...

The Caste System In ancient India they developed a social system in which people were divided into separate close communities. ... The origin of the caste system is in Hinduism, but it affected the whole Indian society. The caste system in the religious form is basically a simple division of society in which there are four castes arranged in a hierarchy and below them the outcast. But socially the caste system was more complicated, with much more castes and sub-castes and other divisions. ... India's caste system can no longer fully contain the socioeconomic change th...

Although no one is assured how old the system is, it is still the one system that distinguishes Hindu social life from the lives of others in different religions. ... Castes determined a child's destiny from birth. ... In reality, there are many thousands of sub-castes branched from these 5 main castes. ... However, if they were married into another caste, both were banned from either caste, and made Untouchables. The caste system changed the lives of the Hindu culturists for the better. ...

Although no one is assured how old the system is, it is still the one system that distinguishes Hindu social life from the lives of others in different religions. ... Castes determined a child's destiny from birth. ... In reality, there are many thousands of sub-castes branched from these 5 main castes. ... However, if they were married into another caste, both were banned from either caste, and made Untouchables. The caste system changed the lives of the Hindu culturists for the better. ...

For centuries the Caste system was respected and looked upon as India's strength by many. However, today the caste system has nothing but put India in a major international crisis. ... In my perspective I do agree that the caste system is India's moral Achilles" heel. ... New York Times journalist, Barbara Crossette, speaks about the caste system in India and agrees that the "Caste system is India's Moral Achilles" Heel. ... The caste system has discriminated and humiliated lower-castes people for only being born as a untouchable. ...